Month: October 2018

My fellow POV readers. Here is a direct request from our fellow Pitt fan Eric Wassel. He needs a new kidney, it is as simple as that. Please read his letter to you below closely and think about trying to help. I’ve included some thoughts of my own as a postscript.

Dear Fellow POVerts:

I saw a story a few weeks ago about a gentleman who was a Penn State fan who was in need of a kidney transplant, and who went to Facebook to make a plea. He was a retired schoolteacher. One of his former students, an Ohio State fan, had herself tested and became his donor. It was/is a very nice story. Google it.

Hearing that story made me decide that its time for me to ask for help.

As some of you know, I am in need of a kidney transplant. And to be honest, I’d much rather have a kidney from a fellow Pitt fan/alum, than from a Nitter or Hoopie. (For that matter, I’d probably be best to avoid the kidneys of some of you guys given my observation of alcohol consumption at POV tailgates!).

All kidding aside, I’d be grateful for anyone who is willing to help, and would be especially appreciative of any PSU or WVU fans.

So I’m going all in, and putting out the word to my fellow POVerts:

I need a kidney donor.

Unfortunately, I have exhausted all avenues with my family and friends, many of whom have been willing to donate. Unfortunately, none of them are my blood type (O), or otherwise have been rejected as donors by the University of Pennsylvania for some other legitimate medical reason. (Side note: Wanted to have the surgery at UPMC, but due to my Highmark insurance, I was turned away. Ridiculous).

I just completed some additional medical testing this week, and expect to be approved for surgery any day now. But in absence of a donor, I’m stuck in neutral. Maybe my donor is out there in the Pitt community somewhere.

My email is eric.wassel@gmail.com should you wish to contact me.

Thank you all in advance for your consideration, and for the kind words that many of you have expressed to me to date.

HAIL TO PITT!!!

Eric (a.k.a. MissingWlat)

P/S: Reed here…I’ve shared on here my own experience of (almost) being a kidney donor to my next door neighbor. Sam, my neighbor, was 75 years old, African-American and in desperate need of a kidney transplant. I had known he was ill but not the extent of it.

When I asked his wife what was happening she told me about Sam’s transplant need and I asked how I could help. Well, she whipped out some papers and asked if I would test for donorship, so I did that afternoon.

To my thinking I was about as far as possible removed from the donor pool for Sam due to our many differences but, just like as has happened with Eric above, all his relatives and friends who had tested for Sam came back negative…except for the ultimate long shot…me.

I was 100% compatible!

Shocked, but very happy, discussed it with my family, they were all in, and then agreed to go through all the additional tests and then donate my kidney.

Honestly all that was amazingly very easy to do, up to a point. A week from the scheduled surgery date the doctors re-did one single test based on how large I am (6’6″ & 250) and it showed a miniscule bit of plaque which disqualified me immediately and at almost literally the last-minute.

I offered to waive any and all liabilities so that we could go on with the surgery but we couldn’t. Of course I had been smoking for 30+ years and drank a ton also…and even with that I almost made it…and you all are probably in much better shape than I was three years ago.

So – my point with this is to tell you that I was rather shocked at how easy and non-stressful the whole process was for me as the prospective donor. I read all I could, talked with other donors and was completely fine, emotionally and mentally, with giving a kidney – because we truly do only need one to function as if we had two. In reality we carry a spare kidney with us.

With that I urge each and everyone to read the letter from Eric again and think long and hard about helping a fellow human in the most profound way.

Thanks so much and if you have any questions at all about donorship please drop me an email with your phone number and I’ll tell you all I know. If you qualify and have worries I’ll drive to wherever you live to talk to you in person if you need – it is truly that important.

I had many friends ask me why I would do this for someone who wasn’t a family member and I told everyone who asked that the same thing…because it is our highest calling in life to save another’s. And that is what you will be doing.

I believe in the good of humanity and think all of you do also. We care and we act and we try our best to help others, even if we don’t know them that well.

BTW after Sam and I did all the testing the doctors determined he was healthy enough to be placed on the transplant waiting list. Sam got his new kidney nine months later and is doing great!

NOTE: Right now all the thoughts and cares I can muster go out to my hometown and the beautiful neighborhood I grew up in. The shooting murders at the integral and so very important Tree of Life synagogue have broken my heart. My childhood home was on top of Negley hill and all my many Jewish friends attended services and conducted their mitzvahs there, just as I attended so many as an invited guest.

Please let us do what we can to help today for immediate issues and in the future to try, somehow, to prevent this acting out in hatred. We cannot just be observers any longer.

I urge each and every one of us to take a long, hard look at the problem and do what we can both as individuals and collectively to make changes.

At 3:30 in the afternoon this coming Saturday Pitt will begin a five game series that will go a long way in seeing which direction the football program is heading. We’ll host the Duke Blue Devils for our “Family Day” Game.

Duke has been spotty lately – they came out of the gates with a 4-1 record beating some pretty decent teams then screech to a halt with a 1-2 over the last three weeks.

Not that is terrible mind you, after all we also are 1-3 over our last four games.

We need this game to get some sort of momentum going into our last bit of the ACC games we’ll play. As of right now the only feather in Pitt’s helmet is that we “almost won” against Notre Dame. Fans were happy with that because like our other two ‘big games’ we didn’t get our asses handed to us by a 36+ yard average Other than that we’ve been pretty mediocre…

This one’s outcome might allow us a seven win seasons but a loss might see us with the reverse with seven losses.

Skill Player Stats

Here where Duke sits nationally:

This one is tricky because we’ve seen Narduzzi’s teams come out of a tough game like ND and do well the next game …and the opposite also. Duke has some good things going for them like their passing game – 17 TDs to 4 INTs is a nice job and their 3rd down conversion defense – both things that we are poor at this season.

This will be a close one but I think Pitt has something left in the tank for winning two more games – this might be one of them. We’ll have to run like hell over the Blue Devils though I don’t see our offense becoming pass accurate all of a sudden.

It the “firm grasp of the obvious” department Narduzzi gets what others have been saying about our offense since halftime against Albany. Here’s a piece from the P-G that’s a good read:

But when you narrow the focus and drill down to the issues that are glaring weaknesses, those obvious to anyone inside or outside the locker room, Narduzzi provides some subtle hints about the evaluation process of his personnel -— players and coaches.

“Sometimes. There’s no doubt about it,” Narduzzi replied when asked if his offense has been too conservative, and if that’s a reason offensive coordinator Shawn Watson’s passing game has been stuck in neutral. “It’s players, it’s coaches involved in it. We’ve talked about that as well.”

Honest to God… every time he says something now I have to laugh instead of cry – which is a mark of progress for us long-suffering Pitt fans.

The Tribune Review responds with this article from Jerry DiPaola about our (poor) passing game. It asks what fans have been asking for three years now – what is up with highly touted recruits Mathews and Tipton? Here is a listing of our top receiver by catches:

In their third eligible years of their careers Mathews has 25 catches for 269 yards and 0 TDs (10.76 ypc) and Tipton has stumbled along with 14 for 156 yards and 1 TD (11.1 ypc). Very disappointing and as far our WR recruiting has suffered a lot since PN took over the reins.

Transfer Taysir Mack is doing well as far as yards per catch goes with 22.1 but his number of catches and number of TDs ain’t so hot. It’s a moot point anyway for this week as it looks like he’ll miss playing time again on Saturday.

We are all disappointed in Pickett’s play so far – and please let’s not make his knee an excuse – it hasn’t hindered his passing game one bit – but really where we are in dire straits for the rest of this season and the future is in our receiving corps and the OL. Oh – and maybe QB also.

Here is what the great stable of passers Narduzzi and Watson have built with their own two hands are doing this season…

Now Pitt fans – can you look at that and honestly say that you are happy Ben DiNucci is off the roster? I think if you are being honest, and not to sound snotty here… know football at all, you’ll wish he was back on roster.

In the “This is No Surprise At All” department we have been informed that transfer Jeff George, Jr is now the QB2 replacing both Town and Patti (who was listed as QB3 earlier in the beginning of the season).

This was a no-brainer as soon as it was announced that he was coming to Pitt on his barnstorming tour. Of course you are going to play a kid who had nine D1 starts (seven against Power 5 schools) as opposed to a vagabond rent-a-QB in Ricky Town who in four different schools has taken one in-game snap.

And forget about playing 2018 recruit QB Nick Patti at all this season fans. Why would you? He’s a true freshman with zero experience and should he get hurt playing in a fake-redshirt year and can’t play next season then we are stuck with the same crappy backups we have now.

I’m not sure it can get much worse Pitt fans (of course it can, after all it is Pitt football) when you have pinned your hopes and dreams on a QB who is averaging only 143 yards passing per game and whose yard per completion average is only 9.4. (Really bad!)

No wonder our 3rd down conversion percentage is only 33.3% – tied for 116th in D1.

But we can run the ball pretty well – can’t seem to score many TDs on the ground but we do move the sticks via the run so – if we can dominate that aspect of offense we’ll pull out a win this weekend.

Pitt opens the final stretch of the 2018 season by hosting Duke for a crucial ACC Coastal Division encounter. The Panthers are 2-1 in ACC play and looking to keep pace with Virginia Tech, which enters the week atop the Coastal at 3-0. Pitt finishes the season with five consecutive ACC games.

Duke also remains a viable contender in the Coastal race despite last week’s 28-14 setback to Virginia. The Blue Devils are 5-2 overall and 1-2 in ACC play. Duke has gone bowling five of the past six years under David Cutcliffe.

Since 2013, the Panthers own a 4-1 series advantage over Duke in ACC play. (Pitt leads the overall series, 13-9.) Three of the five ACC games have been decided by single digits, including Pitt’s 24-17 victory in Durham last year.

The Blue Devils’ last win in the series occurred in 2014, a 51-48 double-overtime triumph at Heinz Field that came despite a 263-yard rushing day by the Panthers’ James Conner.

With 646 total rushing yards this season, Qadree Ollison ranks third among ACC ball carriers. (His average of 92.3 yards per game ranks second.) Ollison is striving to become only the sixth player in Pitt history to achieve multiple 1,000-yard rushing seasons.

The Panthers boast one of college football’s most dangerous return men in junior Maurice Ffrench. Named a “Midseason All-American” by multiple outlets, Ffrench is tied for the national lead with two kickoff return touchdowns.

Maurice Ffrench also ranks second nationally (first in the ACC) with a 33.8-yard kickoff return average. Duke is yielding just 17.82 yards per kickoff return, the third lowest in the ACC.

During the Pat Narduzzi era (since 2015), Pitt ranks second nationally and first among ACC teams in total kick return touchdowns with 12 (seven on kickoffs and five via punt).

SERIES NOTES

This is the 23rd meeting between Pitt and Duke in a series that dates back to 1929…it is also the sixth Atlantic Coast Conference matchup between the two schools…Pitt and Duke meet annually as members of the ACC’s Coastal Division…the Panthers lead the overall series, 13-9, and have won seven of the past eight meetings…Pitt leads the ACC series, 4-1, and triumphed at Wallace Wade Stadium last year, 24-17…in the last game played in Pittsburgh (2016), the Panthers rolled, 56-14…Pat Narduzzi is undefeated in three games against Duke…in addition to the 2016 and ’17 contests, Pitt also defeated the host Blue Devils, 31-13, in 2015, Narduzzi’s initial year as head coach…Duke’s last victory over Pitt occurred in 2014, a 51-48 decision in double overtime at Heinz Field…the 2014 game snapped a four-game series losing streak for Duke and marked its first win over Pitt since 1966…there have been some milestone moments in the Pitt-Duke series…on Sept. 29, 1951, Duke defeated Pitt, 19-14, in the first live nationwide telecast of a sporting event…NBC was responsible for the landmark broadcast…the inaugural game of the series was on Oct. 5, 1929, when Pitt defeated host Duke, 52-7, in the first game ever played at “Duke Outdoor Stadium,” later renamed Wallace Wade Stadium…the 1937 and 1938 games featured two of the nation’s very best teams and a pair of legendary coaches in Pitt’s Jock Sutherland and Duke’s Wallace Wade…on Nov. 27, 1937, the No.1-ranked Panthers defeated the No. 18 Blue Devils, 10-0…Pitt would finish 9-0-1 to claim the national title (Duke finished 7-2-1)…on Nov. 26, 1938, the No. 3 Blue Devils blanked the No. 4 Panthers, 7-0, in what would be Sutherland’s final game as Pitt’s coach…Duke finished the 1938 regular season unbeaten (9-0), untied and unscored upon, but lost to Southern California in the Rose Bowl, 7-3…Pitt, which did not go to a bowl, finished 8-2.